I Won't Let You
by Genevieve Darcy Granger
Summary: It's happened before. An immortal falls in love with a mortal and can't bare to let them die. This time it is different. This time she won't have to make that choice. Her actions make the choice for her.
Jane and Pietro were on the roof of the X-Mansion, if it can be believed. It was night so they weren't in any danger of being seen by students who would get the wrong idea or any troublemaking inspiration. They were lying on the direct center of one of the sloping sides, the shingles digging into their backs though they couldn't be bothered to care when they had a thick, forest green blanket to lay on. Another blanket, this one a pitch black duvet that nearly matched the sky, was draped over the both of them, tucked underneath their sides so they could conserve their body heat from the cool, night air. Underneath the blanket they were in their pajamas, his being Pink Floyd boxers and a _Dark Side of the Moon_ T-Shirt and hers being Beatles boy shorts and an _Abbey Road_ tank top. The only parts of them that touched were their holding hands and when they mischievously pressed their icy feet against the others legs. The only reason the girl's black-haired head wasn't pillowed on the silver-haired boy's shoulder was because they were too busy staring at the stars. Only their faces peeked out above the black duvet for their stargazing activity. Their lips were cold, noses nearly numb, but they couldn't care. The cold helped them stay awake, their eyes wide and bright, and they planned on staying up to see the sunrise anyway.

Pietro was shivering slightly, unused to such activities. He had never bothered to try and count the stars because he thought it be a pointless endeavor. Now that he was with Jane, though, he had matured enough to realize that sometimes things like this had to be experience for the sheer exhilaration and joy that came with it. Being with an immortal, Pietro felt just as invincible as her. Together they surely had all the time the world had to offer them. The world offered them everything because they were in love. Reminded of all of this as his eyes strained to find the Big Dipper, Pietro spoke and the words materialized in the air in a foggy cloud of his moist breath, "Have you done this before, Janie baby?" He was curious, and maybe he shouldn't have been. The moment was too perfect to ruin with unnecessary words, but he had to know.

On the other hand, Jane was unbothered by the cold, use to worse conditions given her past. She was quite comfortable bundled up with her love and was satisfied with holding hands and taking in the moment's perfection. When Pietro asked his question, she wasn't perturbed or bothered in the slightest. Without hesitation she thoughtlessly answered honestly, "Yes." Maybe she should have thought to ask why he wanted to know.

Pietro steadily stared up at the sky above; dotted with so many stars they looked like they were as liberally sprinkled as Darcy's magnificent cupcakes were. In a quiet sort of voice, almost breathlessly, he asked, "Who with?" Though he wasn't looking at her, it was desperate to know the honest answer.

With a jerk, Jane snapped her head to the side to stare at him, wondering what made him ask such a question. In all honesty, she thought he was asking her if she had ever stargazed before, not if she had been with someone before like this. Through the dark she could see Pietro's profile outlined by the slight glow of his silver hair. His dark eyes were staring straight forward, but they shined with starlight. "Pietro, you know I have never loved anyone before you except for Steve, and even then what Steve and I had was nothing like what I have with you. This is so much more special." Twisting underneath the blanket, she flipped over on her side and used her other hand – the one that wasn't clutching his hand tightly – to splay her fingers across his chest over his heart to prove the point of what she felt in her own heart for him.

At her touch, Pietro sighed. Her touch felt like the weight of this burden of being not good enough – imperfection and flaws compared to her – lifted from his stomach and his shoulders. His sigh was wordless, but it did communicate how he felt the same and how he was so grateful for her answer to his inquiries. They stayed like that for a while, until Jane eventually went back to looking up at Orion's Belt, green eyes luminous and glowing softly in the dark. Eventually, though, Pietro broke the silence again. "What were you saying 'yes' to, Janie baby?"

While his eyes were riveted on the Northern star he picked out, hers roamed all over the Milky Way, thinking carefully this time before she immediately answered. "I thought you were asking me if I had stargazed before." She wasn't drowsy, but her voice had a hypnotic lull that came the easiness of speech spoken in the dead of the night. "Of course I had stargazed before. When I was a child, I stayed up and hoped for a better life, for my family to love me, for my father to stop drinking. That's when I thought the stars were for angels." Lapsing into silence after that statement, she nuzzled the black duvet, discretely wiping her nose on it. Then she continued, "When I was in the Thieves' Guild, there were parties all the time. I never cared much for the dancing by lantern light, but I preferred those times spent to myself, noticing how the stars were reflected on the waters of the bayou as if the night went on forever just like I will continue to go on forever."

Having been listening silently, Pietro tried to picture Jane as the miserable child she was, but couldn't because she has always been so happy with him. At the mention of her time in New Orleans, Louisiana; he was inexplicably reminded that she wasn't just immortal, forever young. She was an old soul trapped in a beautiful jewel of a body. Her skin was marble and her bones were adamantium and her eyes were emeralds and her hair was silk and her claws were hooked; on the inside though, she was so much more than beauty. To him that made her all the more beautiful, but it also reminded him of his weakness. He was just a pathetic mortal, wasting away, dying from aging. His hair was already silver as per his mutation, but one day he would be old with wrinkles and liver-spots and she'll still have the freckles of youth spread across her cheeks like the stars were above them. "Jane, you're like the stars."

"Already dead, but still haunting this world anyhow?" she morbidly hazard a guess.

Pietro rolled over speedy quick, already protesting that with his next sudden statement, "No. You're like the stars because you are beautiful but you are so distant, and you outshine everyone else with your power." His hand first came up to cup her celestial visage, his face so very close to hers that their breaths were visibly intermingling in the air. At their closeness, Jane blushed in the dark, and the only way Pietro could know she was doing that was the heat on his palm from the blood rushing to her cheeks.

It was almost like he was about to kiss her, but instead his lips barely ghosted against hers and he so very quietly whispered to her, "Compared to you I'm a short candlestick that can be so easily snuffed out." His eyes fell closed at that, and he shivered again, this time not from the cold.

"No."

Jane heatedly whispered, and her hand came up to cover his own hand. There was anger in her voice. "You aren't some candle in the wind to be extinguished like that."

His eyes were forced open at her tone and when he opened them it was to see the green of her eyes flare like fire, her energy swirling around them as if she were making a bargain with the devil for his soul, wicked but beautiful magic in the witching hour. "You cannot die, Pietro Maximoff."

The green of her eyes shined on his face like a flashlight to where she could see every detail of his innocent face she so loved. "I won't let you."

He wasn't scared, but excited by the display of her powers and the fury laced like poison in her words. "I love you."

Only then did they finally kiss, but it was not sweet. It was full of passion and promise, sinful in the pleasure derived. Jane's green energy encompassed them from all sides, blocking out the stars and everything else from view. The green energy formed a bubble around their nest of blankets, and they made love in the privacy it provided in the heat of the moment to assure each other that neither was disappearing anytime soon. Much later, when Jane reached her climax, the green energy bubble finally dissipated and they fell asleep there as the light of dawn bathed them in its golden hues.

Years later, they were still together through thick and thin and dozens of missions. They were both still so young and still just as in love as they were that night. It wasn't until a mission where Pietro was slashed across the face that they realized what exactly took place that night. The cut on her cheek did not bleed but glowed green and healed over until it was exactly how it was before. Through a series of experiments with Hank they discovered that Jane's energy bubble acted as a kind of cocoon to transform Pietro into an immortal. The exchange of DNA helped, but not nearly as much as the love that Jane used to seal him to her forever.

So they went on in this world, had a few children, happily married, too. Not all of the times were so sweet. They outlived many of their friends and Jane had to go through Steve's death again. Pietro attended so many funerals –Wanda's, Magda's, Maggie's – something that came with the gift of immortality.

Still, they had their happy times as well. They traveled the globe, trekked fearlessly across Europe, and always came back to Paris together. On their anniversary they'd watch the stars and sometimes managed to stay awake long enough to see the sun's red rays signal the beginning of a new day in the immortal lives. Their children had the gift as well that was passed down from generation to generation. Logan and Darcy had their family with similar mutations as well. It seemed they were to be the new Adams and Eves of the world.

Life went on for Jane and Pietro both, forever and ever, never without each other. That was all they wanted anyway. An eternity together.


End file.
